Faculty Workshop

 

 

Call for Applications – Faculty Workshop on Integrating Sustainability into the Curriculum 

 An invitation to Summer 2025 Workshop: 

“Green Curriculum, Green Campus, Green City” 

We invite you to enhance your teaching and engagement with environmental and interconnected economic and social justice issues by participating in the “Faculty Workshop on Integrating Sustainability into the Curriculum”, May 12-13.  Modeled after the Piedmont Project at Emory University, this workshop has been an intellectually stimulating and collegial experience for faculty across many disciplines.

Skeptics, environmentalists, and those in between have found their various perspectives welcomed and enriched by the dialogue and the project activities.

Are you thinking about developing a new course or new modules in an existing course?  See past examples at: www.piedmont.emory.edu/syllabi/index.html. 

The workshop will explore how we can meaningfully integrate sustainability—broadly defined—into our classrooms.  Though we start by taking a close look at ECU, Greenville, and the eastern NC region, we invite participants to engage in local/global comparisons.  We will have resource experts giving presentations and facilitating discussion of a green curriculum and its integration and role in the broader community.

Participants will receive an honorarium of $250 upon completion of a new or revised syllabus, will join in a fieldtrip and discussions that will offer opportunities to extend research and teaching horizons across disciplines and create new networks with fellow colleagues. 

Application:  If you are interested, please complete the online application form including a short, one-paragraph description of how you plan to change an old course or develop a new one.  

Deadline to Apply:  Friday, February 14, 2025

Sustainability Workshop participants agree to: 

(1) Read some materials prior to the workshop. 

(2) Participate in the one-and-a-half-day workshops, May 6-7. 

(3) Over the summer, prepare a syllabus for the affected course or courses and submit it by Friday, August 1 with an explanatory paragraph, for posting to the ECU Sustainability Program website. 

(4) Report back to the group for a fieldtrip to Otter Creek Natural Area on August 20, 2025 and a Spring follow-up event. 

  

Workshop Agenda: 

 

Day 1:  9am to 4:30pm 

9:00am – 9:30am:  Welcome with Coffee/Tea and Breakfast Bars/Muffins

9:30am – 10:30am:  “What is Sustainability” by Jeff McKinnon, Biology Professor

10:30am – 10:45am:  Break 

10:45am – 11:30am:  Group Discussion on Pre-assigned Readings 

11:30am – 12:15pm:  Former Participant Presenting on Implementation Experience during Lunch 

12:15pm – 12:30pm Walk to the ECU Tree Trail (outside Jenkin’s Art Building) 

12:30pm – 1:30pm:  Campus Tree Trail Guided Walk with John Gill, Campus Landscape Architect

1:30pm – 2:00pm:  Walk back to LSBB and Bio/Email Break  

2:00pm – 3:00pm:  “Making Environmental Change Happen” by Chad Carwein, ECU Sustainability Manager 

3:00pm – 4:00pm:  Small Group Discussions on Implementation Strategies (workshop facilitators floating around) 

4:00pm – 4:30pm:  Reflections on Day 1 and Discuss Day 1 Homework (can hang around until 5pm) 

Day 1 Homework: Review pedagogy examples in AASHE’s “Teaching Sustainability Competencies Across the Disciplines” guide for instructors.  There are lesson plans, assignments, and assessments of student learning for several different academic disciplines (e.g. Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Engineering, Business and Economics, Health and Social Work, Law and Policy).  Use these examples to begin planning how you will integrate sustainability into your curriculum and start to outline a couple of ideas for your class next semester.  

 

Day 2:  12pm to 5pm 

12pm – 1pm:  Walk to Town Creek Culvert for a Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) Talk  

1pm – 1:40pm:  Welcome Back and Group Discussion on Day 1 Homework Assignment 

1:40pm – 2:40pm:  “Sustainability at ECU” by Kim Fox, ECU Sustainability Outreach Specialist 

2:40pm – 2:55pm:  Break 

2:55pm – 3:55pm:  “Integrating Sustainability into the Curriculum” by James Loudon, Anthropology 

3:55pm – 4:15pm:  Quiet Personal Reflection Exercise 

4:15pm – 5pm:  Social Hour with Wine, Beer, and Appetizers so Participants can chat about their ideas

 

Pre-Workshop Assigned Readings:
  1. Creighton – Introduction from “Greening the Ivory Tower” (1998)
  2. Creighton – Making Environmental Change Happen (1998)
  3. Barlett – Reconnecting with Place (2005)
  4. Agyeman – Toward a Just Sustainability (2008)
  5. Cotton-Winter – Sustainability Pedagogies (2010)
  6. Ben-Eli – Sustainability Definition and Five Core Principles (2015)
  7. Orr – Selected Essays from “Hope is an Imperative” (1988-2011)

 

Other Resources: